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13 babies born in town hall – a community coping after Typhoon Haiyan

Children play amongst the rubble of Tanuan, Leyte island in the Philippines. Photo: P.Fuller/IFRC

At Tanuan town hall, on the island of Leyte in the Philippines, 23-year-old Golda May has joined a team of five midwives to set up a delivery room in a tiny office with a desk covered by a towel which serves as a bed. With half of the roof missing, a leaking tarpaulin provides them with some shelter from the elements. The floor is awash with muddy water.

“Some of the mothers went into labour prematurely because of shock following the disaster,” says Golda. “We have no anesthetic, no pain relief and no antibiotics.”

Despite the crude set up, the team have managed 13 deliveries in the past week. Golda shares her own tragic story. The day the storm hit she was working, but her four-year-old daughter was at home in the path of the storm surge.

“My daughter is still missing; people say they are burying all the children in a mass grave. I just have to keep busy so that I don’t think about what happened,” she says. She has no other children.

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The Irish Red Cross is at the forefront of delivering aid to vulnerable people in Ireland and in countries around the world that have been struck by wars or natural disasters.
To be Ireland’s premier community service organization, through the implementation of the Red Cross Charter, preventing and alleviating human suffering, protecting life and health, ensuring respect for the human being by continually delivering a high quality humanitarian service to society at home and abroad. The Irish Red Cross provides care to the most vulnerable at home and abroad in peace, crisis and disaster.
The Irish Red Cross is currently undergoing changes to its corporate governance structure to bring it in line with modern practice. All change will be subject of the agreement of the Government of Ireland and the International Committee of the Red Cross.﻿
The Irish Red Cross is part of the world's largest humanitarian aid organisation The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement with apx. 97 million volunteers in 186 countries. Our Volunteers and staff work in communities all over Ireland and overseas.
If you would like more information about the Irish Red Cross please see http://www.redcross.ie